Game Review: Terraria
Wow, Terraria…
It takes forever! As an iOS gamer, I have been following the pulse of iOS game development. It seems like three genres of Games have been steadily growing over the past year. Those genres are Crafting, Card, and Survival Games. Terraria is one of the most popular iOS Crafting/Survival games on the market.
The basic premise is that you are stuck on an alien world and need to survive. With rudimentary tools (at first), you create your own kingdom. As the game progresses, you have access to more intricate tools and resources, allowing you to create more and more items. Games like this tend to drag on forever! With Terraria, there is an end. You do reach the end of the crafting table after many hours in the game, and you can then spend your time developing your holdings.
I like to think of Terraria as a version of Minecraft built for an iOS Device. Minecraft uses a First Person perspective to render graphics. On the iOS devices, that is limited due to the RAM that is built in. Terraria uses a simple side scrolling 2D gameplay mechanic which renders beautifully on the limited resource of the iPad.
The Video Review
[asa_item id=”640364616″ more_info_text=”More Info on this App…”]Overall Rating
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Interface
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Engagement
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Education Value
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Productivity Value
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Game Value
Summary
Well, where do I start… The game interface is somewhat difficult to figure out, and never ceases to be tiresome. I hate the “zoom in” mining and gathering. As far as the engagement goes, I was somewhat lost. The story did not engage me as much as I thought it would, and the crafting became tedious and underdeveloped very quickly (queue the Terraria Terrorists). I am a fan of Minecraft, but this game just did not have what I was looking for. It is still a worthwhile application based upon how it has influenced the app store. My overall score is: Meh. It may last on my iPad, unless another great crafting game comes along.